Thursday, 25 July 2013

Following on from the Starship Troopers: Whiskey Outpost scenario I thought I would see how Future War Commander would play out for the Invasion of Planet P and more specifically the hunt for the Brain Bug in the tunnels beneath Planet P.

The tunnels
In several towns in the UK a wonderful non-wargaming shop can be found called Wilkinson's. It sells several useful items for gamer, one of which is stone-effect floor tiles. I used these to make several tunnels and chambers by sticking them to greyboard for extra strength and then cutting them out with a sharp knife. They look passable. Given more time I would add walls and apply an ink wash. Alternatively get Shaun at Dreamholme to cast me some up in resin

There is a central main chamber, 4 smaller chambers and the entrances are at the end of the long tunnels.

The tunnels were cut to a standard width of 60mm because .....
I can fit 2 bug stands, 2p pieces, side by side in a 60mm tunnel. 2 bug bases can assault each enemy base therefore by implication the tunnel is only wide enough for one non-bug unit regardless of the bases size.

The Bugs
My bug army comprises several hundred plastic ants based on 2p pieces - roughly a 150 bases and about 3000 points

FWC Stats are

Troops

Arm

Move

Attacks

Assault

Hits

Save

Notes

Warriors

Infantry

30 F

0

4

4

6

Must assault in initiative phase
2 bases can assault each enemy base

The Brain Bug, as per the film, is total useless and unable to defend itself so it has no stats

For this scenario the Bugs did not have a commander which meant that they could only use initiative. This made the game quicker.

Bugs were randomly generated when new sections or chambers were revealed - 1D6 per tunnel section, 3D6 per small chamber and 5D6 for the main chamber. New sections etc are revealed when the current section has been declared bug-free

The Attackers

There are 4 tunnel entrances so this allows for 4 attackers but for this game we only had 3

They were told that they were on a Bug hunt and to bring 1250 point armies and that massive units, aircraft and off-board artillery were useless. They weren't told that they were going undergound.

The Game
As this was the first try-out there was no turn limit on the game. Some common tactics soon developed

All 3 players used Recce units to scout ahead

The Nartzi found several bugs and brought up their heavy tank - good at shooting but bad at close assault

The Khazari plasma blasted any they found - the rule about plasma splash being very useful

The French took up defensive positions at every junction

The players were limited to 1 unit wide columns in tunnels but not in chambers. Therefore in order to bring as much fire power to bear each column was led by a low-profile unit ie infantry or bikes and followed by an average profile ie IFV or Tanks. In FWC this enables both units to fire.

The French column about to enter a chamber - infantry backed up by a hover IFV

Nartzi infantry hold off 4 bugs supported by a Death truck

Due to poor operational intelligence the Khazari did not use this tactic and suffered - 2 bike units, both low profile so only one can shoot, about to get swept away by a cave full of bugs.

Slowly the columns made headway through the maze of twisting and turning tunnels and chambers

Slowly but surely the location of the Brain Bug was becoming apparent

The Nartzi turn a chamber into a fortress in case the bugs decide to ..er.. bug out

The Khazari column trundles down the tunnels towards the main chamber

But it's the French using their IFVs correctly, according to FWC anyway, that find what they are came for...

..The Brain Bug and it's horde of defenders

The French make short work of the bugs leaving the Brain Bug defenseless

And ready to be towed to the surface

Conclusions
Not bad as an initial try-out. Tunnel fighting, especially in one unit wide column, is always going to be a bit of a grind and I wouldn't play it every week. However I was pleased with the way it went. Allowing the bugs to only use initiative worked well

At game end the players had developed successful tactics and were thinking of what other units and tactics could be employed.

For the next game I will halve the length of the long (30cm) tunnels, add more caves and dead-ends and possibly allow bugs to ambush

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

Whiskey Outpost is a fort in the first Starship Troopers film, see Youtube clip

The FWC site has a list for Starship trooper bugs which is probably the most evil, and incorrect, list available with 5 independent flame-throwing gunships per 1000 points. You get 10 of those babies on the table and it's game over for the opposition

I reworked the list to change the gunships to grav infantry and created an expendable worker bug that creates a tunnel and then dies

For the scenario we had 1250 points of defenders and 2500 points of bugs

This is Steve's take on the scenario....

We elected to recreate the scene of the attack by the bugs on Rico & co in the outpost ….spoiler alert….The team Rico is in are sent to investigate a distress signal from an outpost but it turns out to be a trap and hordes of bugs attack them…surprise!

We played on a 3' by 3' board with the outpost accessible on all sides. The film seems to indicate 1 side was backed to a cliff face but aesthetically it looked good and we played on.

So first turn I used Guild Legio, mainly infantry and some support weapons. I'd made some assumptions about Alan's army that were in correct as it turns out but hey ho. I manned the ramparts and catered for massive tunnellers busting into the compound.

Alan deployed his first wave, opening a tunnel within move range of the walls, due to the tunnelling rules I have no opportunity fire and no defensive fire. Cue shed loads of bugs assaulting me. I got the benefit of the blast wall but attrition hurts eventually. I held off the first wave, took a casualty but felt I'd done OK.

Alan's second order on 11s... Alan took advantage, picked on the now weak point on the walls with another load of bugs, I took more casualties. And the gap was bigger.

Alan's 3rd order on 10s. Alan picks on another wall assaults it in the same manner, no opportunity or defensive fire. On top of that a load of dragonflies appear, grav infantry.My support troops are no longer supporting since they are suppressed due to being a loser in prior combats. I lose that wall too.

Alan on 9s for his 4th order. Alan's said same troop on the newly attacked wall no longer have opponents so pile into the compound and over run both my CO and HQ. Technically they have nowhere to go so despite the rules being vague the logical answer is they are eliminated. Ground bugs and flying ones plough on into the rear of my remaining troops.

At this stage Alan's going for his 5th order on 8s but I've no commanders other than an FAO and about 2 short of break point with bugs attacking the rear of my remaining troops so without even having had a command roll I called it a day and signed Alan's Book of Victories.

We both agreed that perhaps as a scenario it needed tweaking if it were to be fun for the defender too so discussed some options around the Bugs Army List.

Thanks to Steve for penning that.

I have to say that it's not much of a game when it's won in less than 1 turn (unless playing against Steve)

I then tweaked the Bugs list to drop the Warrior bugs' tunnelling ability. This meant that they could be shot at as they came out of the tunnel with opportunity and defensive fire

We then went onto play a second scenario with Steve using his Kraytonian army

Once again Whiskey Outpost was rammed to the gills - this time with terrapins.

The first tunnel attack ended up with every ant being destroyed due to defensive fire. However the attack on the north wall fared better

Overrunning the north wall the ants looked like repeating the previous scenario

However the Krays rallied and clear the infestation

A second wave of warriors and flyers was sent against the north wall

Once again Whiskey Outpost is overwhelmed

And once again the Krays clear the walls

The fight see-sawed for several turns with the bugs getting to the wall but being beaten back by the Krays. Eventually the bugs retired with barely a handful left. A rare victory for the Kraytonians

This scenario played better than the first as the defenders had a chance to drop the bugs before getting into hand-to-hand. The bugs have no ranged weapons so must attack and against a good fire zone will suffer.

I will probably bring this game along to the Blast-Tastic show in October if that's ok with Michael